Abstract:
The longest U.S. network record of precipitation chemistry in the modern era is that which started as the Department of Energy's Multistate Atmospheric Power Production Pollution Study (MAP3S) in 1976. With the end of the acid deposition decade, and with the cessation of a formal research program under the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, the MAP3S network was terminated by DOE and ... was eventually transferred to NOAA where it remains a program of ARL, constituting one tier of the AIRMoN-Wet program.

Routine aspects of the AIRMoN-Wet program are coordinated carefully with NADP. Siting protocols, field equipment, some sampling protocols, and most laboratory analysis protocols are the same for both programs. Protocols in AIRMoN-Wet differ from NADP only to the extent required to ensure temporally adequate (daily) sampling collection and enhanced sample quality. AIRMoN protocols that differ from NADP include:

* daily collections * chilling of samples until analysis * reliance on a National Weather Service "stick" gage instead of a Belfort 5-780 weighing gage for official precipitation amount measurement * no filtration of samples prior to analysis * a sampling order for trace samples that emphasizes analysis of anthropogenic substances over soil cations.

As with NADP, AIRMoN-Wet samples are analyzed by the Illinois State Water Survey in Champaign, Illinois, and network coordination is handled through the National Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.